Social Media Secrets to Help Your Business Generate More Clients

There are 6 social media platforms with more than 1 billion users in January 2022, and these social media networks are:

1. Facebook – 2.91 billion users

2. Youtube – 2.56 billion users

3. WhatsApp – 2 billion users

4. Instagram – 1.47 billion users

5. WeChat – 1.26 billion users

6. TikTok – 1 billion users

GO TO WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE IS!

Where do you find customers?

Any entrepreneur, solopreneur, any business asks this question daily, or should be. The issue is that one should not, cannot wait for customers to come knocking on your door. Mmmm nope not even in the technology era we currently find ourselves in, customers are not handed over on silver platters via referrals. Please don't get me wrong referrals and social proofing are HUGE aids in the in the sales process but you have got to roll up 'em sleeves and put in the effort.

To get more clients in this day and age you HAVE TO BE OUT THERE!

Be DISCOVERABLE!

Marketing on social media is now a part of everyday life. With smartphones glued to hands and eyes constantly focused on screens, there’s no denying that social media has become a regular part of our lives.

Social media in no longer important but an imperative marketing tool in your marketing arsenal for brands and businesses. Why? Because it has the power to reach a huge audience and can provide an opportunity to connect with consumers in a far more personal way.

The marketing industry has also adapted to this change and has been investing heavily in the space. Social Media Marketing is not just about posting content or ads on Facebook or Twitter anymore, it is about how you post it and at what time.

Marketing on social media is not as easy as it sounds. If you are not careful, you could end up wasting a lot of time and money without getting any results. To avoid this, there are some things that you need to keep in mind.

Social Media Platform of Choice

The first step in marketing on social media is to create a clear strategy. This will help you identify which social media platforms are best suited for your brand, what kind of content you should post, and how often you should post it. Don't suffer from FOMO and spread yourself thin by posting on all social media platforms just for the sake of it.

Suggestion: Dive deep into one or two platforms rather than going wide on a dozen.

Having a good strategy is the first step in marketing on social media effectively, but there are many other steps that need to be taken into account. One of these steps is understanding your audience’s needs and wants as well as their demographics so that you can tailor your content accordingly.

For example if your target market is a female hobbyist looking for inspiration your platform of choice would be for example Pinterest.

Below is a quick insight into the various use cases of each social media platform:

Facebook - Provides a highly functional messaging platform for its followers to interact with one another on a one-to-one basis. Facebook provides for videos, reels and imagery.

LinkedIn - Is know more as the business networking platform.

Instagram - Is utilized for more visually intriguing imagery and short videos.

Twitter - Used for the quick exchange of banter and frequent messages.

Pinterest - An inspirational platform for hobbies and interests.

Optimize Your Profile

Once you have selected your Social Media platform ensure that your profile is optimized and oozing your values. Do a social media audit and update old and outdated, platforms and trends change over time welcome new and innovative ideas and concepts, update graphics and captivate your audience.

Would you purchase from a brand that is incomplete, has inaccurate business information, loads of those spammy promotional posts and zero engagement? Me thinks not, so ensure that you create and maintain a strong, desirable online persona.

Don't settle for less just because it is available, design a brand with a purpose it will encourage conscious consumerism.

Allocate Resources Wisely

As said before, when used correctly social media is a channel that is used successfully to engage with your customers and grow your business. Let's put all the cards on the table Social Media Management does take time and effort to maintain a consistent strategy.

Some businesses that are strapped for money and time sometimes overlook social media tasks or may even push it to the back burner, which is a costly oversight. It is important to allocate resources wisely - some businesses might find it beneficial to outsource this necessary task to someone who specializes in social media marketing.

Social Media Management does require unique skills like Branding Expertise, Organizational Skills and Strategic Thinking, which does not necessarily require an on-staff social media manager, if you have the means, hiring an expert to handle social media can pay off.

Post Relevant Content, Regularly

Being a success on Social Media is all about posting intriguing, compelling, valuable and helpful content that fits with your business objectives. Understand the pain points of your audience and address these as quickly as possible as easily as possible, consistently.

Understand that Social Media platforms are about creating and maintaining authentic relationships, your highest priority is engagement. Offer as much value as possible to build longevity and lasting relationships.

Make lasting impressions that are on brand, ensure that posts uphold your values but never be too scared to try out new things.

A note to all my #hashtag buddies, slow down on the number of hashtags used, their purpose is to organize your social posts and identify your brand. If you click on a specific hashtag, all the relevant content becomes visible. It is a fact that you can loose engagement and annoy your audience by including too many hashtags. So stick to using only high-volume relevant hashtags.

Be Responsive

The ultimate key to ace social media is to be “social.” Interacting with your followers and other posts builds relationships and can help you gain new clients. Be responsive to questions, comments, compliments and complaints. See engaging with your audience as an opportunity to expand and cement lifelong relationships. The use of emoticons or emojis are great at conveying emotions pretty well, but remember to use them correctly to convey the correct sentiment at the right time. 

Interacting on posts should not be limited to only those you posted, cast your net to include interaction on other people's posts. Comment and engage with posts of relevance to provide insights and engage with your audience's posts to build authentic connections. By targeting specific, niche audiences, you can get your name out to a group of people that are already interested in your brand. 

Take note that big brands are following suite, notice how brands, sports teams, and competing social media sites are commenting on random posts. This expands the pool of people that see your profile and thus expands your client base. 

Collaboration 

Now hear this, by collaborating with other users you are organically growing your customer base. What does that mean? Organically growing your business/ customer base means that the business utilizes its own resources on its own capacity to expand, there is no financial expense however results in growth, an example being adopting new strategies like collaborating with a partner where a win/ win situation benefits you both.

When adopting this new strategy you will be appearing to a whole new pool of followers of your collaborative partner, as they your pool of followers. It is therefore understandable that you set your target on a beneficial partnership where you both enjoy a mutually beneficial outcome, it is logical that if you reach out to someone with drastically more followers than you, you may be denied because the relationship isn’t beneficial for them. Ideal collaboration partners have around the same number of followers as you do.

Reach out to someone that runs a similar business or social media page as you. You can either shout each other out in a post or collaborate to make a new piece of content together. Sites like Instagram even have a collaboration feature where your post will show up on not only your followers’ pages but the person you’re collaborating with followers’ pages as well.

Social Listening Leads to Expansion

Establish your audience then EXPAND it! Gaining your base following requires crafting and optimizing your social media profiles to mirror the insights you have uncovered by analyzing the demographics of your audience. The more information you have on your audience the stronger your position in the market, gain this by analyzing their interests, analyse what other brands they interact with, their hobbies etc.

Once established take the leap to expand your audience. Take advantage of social media's excellent opportunities for global growth and recognition for brands and creators by appealing to other users outside your immediate circle. This can be as simple as using different hashtags or making a post saying you ship internationally.

Also, try expanding globally if your primary consumer base comes from your native country. Your engagement rate will increase exponentially making the required difference between competitors, and the number of your followers will soon become irrelevant. 

The formula for increased response and engagement rate and expansion in 2022 = Personalise, Add Value and a Call to Action.

Personalized posts are communicated to your audiences' persona, speak directly with them and engage them and your community intentionally.

Always provide help and value, offer a solution.

A great CTA (Call To Action) is simply asking a question, or for feedback, another example is to ask for examples or for for replies to a comment RATHER than a cold hard "buy this".

If the content is still aligned with your brand, your original audience will continue to support the posts you make. Only now, you’ll have even more customers flocking to your site because you expanded the type of content you create.  

Analyse the Data

Analyse, measure, and conquer. 

There are numerous ways to analyse your various social media sites performance, investigate analytics regularly for example to see when is the best time to post and how each post is compared to the others, be observant of patterns. What data do you see repeating positively? Now prioritize and do more of that.

Your analytics is a helpful tool if you don't obsess over the results you see. Check it frequently, but not too often to the point of obsession and harsh critique. 

Seeing these trends in your analytics can give you a better idea of what posts grab the attention of more comprehensive ranges of people using the social media site.

A Game of Trial and Error

Social media is not a one size fits all, this much is true. Social media marketing is trying many techniques and seeing which ones stick but keeping your finger on the pulse when this technique needs changing up. Keep experimenting and trying new methods to generate more clients for your business.

Generally businesses have crisis strategies but forget to cater to your loyal customers. Ensure that you recognize and appreciate your loyal, steadfast audience and they will share how amazing you and your brand is even more, they are the backbone of your business and can make up a ton of your sales. 

Wrap Up

FACT: Social selling companies outperform non-social sellers.

Social Media is used to cultivate relationships turning followers into your biggest fans, your clients into your brand ambassadors, your team members into your biggest evangelists, and your community members into collaborators. 

We all know how social media is significantly shaping the buying behaviour of our customers however business's are not capitalizing on this! Don't site not having time, the know-how and/ or fear of failure as not being a social seller. If high performance companies have provided the proof that social selling is a huge benefit what are you waiting for?

I am eager to hear about your social media strategies. What methods have you adopted and what inclusions can you include for us all to learn?

If you would like to walk through how Tash Digital can assist you with getting your Social Media Marketing strategy NAILED click here to make an appointment OR send an email to [email protected].